{"id":28919,"date":"2014-05-16T12:00:55","date_gmt":"2014-05-16T17:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=28919"},"modified":"2014-05-16T15:24:05","modified_gmt":"2014-05-16T20:24:05","slug":"flags-of-my-ex-father-in-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=28919","title":{"rendered":"Flags Of My Ex-Father-In-Law"},"content":{"rendered":"

My ex father-in-law, Al, had been married about a week when Pearl Harbor was attacked.\u00a0 The next morning, he and his umpteen brothers (I lost count and never really found it again) volunteered for one of the armed forces or another (except for one older brother who had already joined the Navy in the thirties).<\/p>\n

He had a busy war.<\/p>\n

As I recall the story; he started off working as a cook, then trained as a gunner’s mate.\u00a0 He shipped aboard theUSS Iowa, and cruised to North Africa to take FDR to the Casablanca conference.<\/p>\n

Then, when cleaning his gun (a 20mm Oerlikon anti-aircraft machine gun), a recoil spring popped loose, catapulting him over the edge and down a deck or two, cracking a vertebrae or two.\u00a0 He was in the Naval Hospital for months recuperating from the injury, as Iowa <\/em>sailed on.<\/p>\n

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Iowa, later in the war. Iowa has no further place in the story, but it’s cool picture. That’s USS Indiana steaming in the background, in the Pacific in 1944. Collett is actually most likely not too terribly far from these ships…<\/p><\/div>\n

And so he was reassigned to “new construction” at Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine, upstream from the Atlantic along the border with New Hampshire – a shipyard that still builds all the US Navy’s destroyers.<\/p>\n

He was assigned to the fitting-out and commissioning of a brand-new destroyer – DD-730, to be christened the USS Collett<\/em>. The destroyer was named after Navy Lieutenant Commander John A. Collett, commander of a torpedo bomber squadron who’d been shot down and killed at the Battle of Santa Cruz Islands in 1942. In a highly unusual non-coincidence, the ship’s first commander was Collett’s brother, Commander James D. Collett.<\/p>\n

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Collett during its sea trials, off Boston, May 31 1944.<\/p><\/div>\n

And seventy years ago today, Collett <\/em>was commissioned into the US Navy.\u00a0 Al was a “plankholder” – a member of the crew that put the vessel into service.<\/p>\n

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Side elevation of a Sumner class destroyer.<\/p><\/div>\n

Collett\u00a0<\/em>was an “Allan Sumner” class destroyer – the first class of US Navy destroyers designed entirely after the war started. \u00a0With six five-inch guns in three turrets (instead of the four or five single turrets of earlier designs, all capable of shooting at either ships or aircraft), and twelve 40mm anti-aircraft machine guns, the Sumners reflected the lessons learned so far in the war; anti-aircraft firepower was a matter of life or death. \u00a0As indeed for the\u00a0Collett\u00a0<\/em>it would be shortly.<\/p>\n

After its shakedown – a fast, wartime working-up period –\u00a0Collett\u00a0<\/em>set sail to join the Pacific Fleet, arriving in Pearl Harbor exactly five months from its commissioning date, and at the massive forward base at Ulithi Atoll three weeks later.<\/p>\n

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Ulithi Atoll during the war. A squat little coral atoll, it had an immense lagoon, providing a sheltered anchorage big enough for hundreds of Allied ships. Home to hundreds of supply ships, repair ships, barracks barges, ammunition ships, factory ships (including a floating foundry), water distillery barges, hospital ships, even a barge that produced ice cream by the barrel, Ulithi was perhaps the greatest naval base in history – and when the war ended and the fleet pulled anchor, it disappeared virtually without a trace.<\/p><\/div>\n

And then it was off to war.<\/p>\n

Two weeks later, she was off to start in the run-up to the invasion of the Philippines. \u00a0And there – on November 14 –\u00a0Collett\u00a0<\/em>was part of an extraordinary encounter.\u00a0\u00a0The destroyer was posted on radar “picket” duty – sailing well north of the main invasion fleet, to provide early radar warning of incoming air raids. \u00a0It was among the most dangerous jobs in the Navy; the Japanese knew what the long chains of lone destroyers were doing.\u00a0 Of course, the carriers provided air cover – but it didn’t always work.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Destroyers – even big ones like the\u00a0Collett<\/em>\u00a0 – had their limitations. \u00a0The general assumption was that one destroyer could take on one attacking aircraft at a time. \u00a0That wasn’t chicken feed; an incoming combat aircraft flown by a competent pilot is a formidable target. \u00a0And while the fire control systems on American destroyers were wonders of analog technology – by far the most advanced of their day – the complexity of the problem generally boiled down to the simple fact that a destroyer could reasonably hope to deal with one attacking aircraft at a time. \u00a0(Larger ships – cruisers and battleships – could deal with more, and a formation of ships escorting an aircraft carrier could put up a storm of anti-aircraft fire that made attacking a US formation a very risky, costly thing by 1944. \u00a0Indeed, a kamikaze mission. \u00a0But we’ll get back to that).<\/p>\n

On November 14, four Japanese G4M2 “Betty” torpedo bombers approached Collett<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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A formation of “Betty” bombers.<\/p><\/div>\n

Seventy years of being the victors in the war have given Americans a sense that Japanese military equipment was junk – but in fact the “Betty” was one of the better torpedo bombers of the war. \u00a0It was fast (for a twin-engined bomber), with an extremely long range, and armed with Japanese torpedoes (and unlike American torpedoes<\/a>, Japanese torpedoes were excellent, accurate, and utterly reliable), the “Betty” was a formidable plane. \u00a0And there were four of them.<\/p>\n

And they were clearly led by a competent tactician, because the four planes fanned out around\u00a0Collett<\/em>, turned, and came in from all four points of the compass – a tactic that virtually ensured that at the very\u00a0least three planes and likely all four\u00a0would get to drive their attack home, that three or four torpedoes would be launched, and at least one would almost certainly hit the target, definitely crippling it, probably sinking it.<\/p>\n

But the American ship – Commander Collett and his anti-aircraft crews, including Al, who was the gun captain of a 40mm mount to starboard of the forward smokestack – pulled off an incredible performance, shooting down two of the incoming bombers. \u00a0In those days, it was an amazing display of gunnery.<\/p>\n

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A twin 40mm mount, similar to (indeed, interchangeable with) the one Al captained on the Collett. Each barrel fired two two-pound shells a second to a range of about a mile. The gun was a Swedish design, appropriated and used by nearly every country still extant by 1944; the US, Britain, and even Germany built them under license. Some are still in active service today.<\/p><\/div>\n

The other two launched their torpedoes – and, in a feat of seamanship that sounds pretty trival in written English, but which in practice was a couple steps shy of parting the Red Sea, Commander Collett managed to “comb the wakes” of the two incoming “fish”, dodging them both.<\/p>\n

The feat may have stopped short of “miracle” – but it was\u00a0an exceptional display of gunnery, seamanship, and 1940s analog computing technology.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Collett\u00a0<\/em>– and Al – went on to much more; they battled Kamikazes off Okinawa. \u00a0Its’ squadron was among the first American ships to sortie into Tokyo Bay, torpedoing several Japanese merchant ships in the process. \u00a0She escorted the\u00a0Missouri<\/em>\u00a0to the surrender ceremony.<\/p>\n

And that wasn’t all. \u00a0She fought in Korea – Collett <\/em>was the second ship into Inchon Harbor, battling it out with the Korean shore batteries, among a group of destroyers that were expected to be “sitting ducks<\/a>“, drawing North Korean fire to mark the guns for obliteration from fleet gunfire and air attacks. \u00a0In fact, the destroyers silenced the Korean guns, and Collett<\/em>\u00a0suffered light casualties.<\/p>\n

She was an active unit of the Pacific Fleet until 1960, when she collided with the USS Ammen, had her bow replaced with the bow from another WWII destroyer, and then served off Vietnam.<\/p>\n

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Collett in 1969<\/p><\/div>\n

Then, in 1974, she was sold to Argentina. \u00a0The USS\u00a0Collett\u00a0<\/em>became the Argentinian navy ship ARA\u00a0Piedra Buena<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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The Piedra Buena<\/p><\/div>\n

During the Falklands Islands war of 1982,\u00a0Piedra Buena\u00a0<\/em>was escorting the Argentinean cruiser General Belgrano<\/em> (formerly the US light cruiser Phoenix<\/em>) when the\u00a0Belgrano\u00a0<\/em>was torpedoed by the British submarine\u00a0HMS Conqueror<\/em>. \u00a0Piedra Buena<\/em>\u00a0picked up survivors, then returned to Argentina.<\/p>\n

The ship’s long career ended in 1988, when the Argies sank her as a missile target.<\/p>\n

That, as it happens, was maybe a year before I met Al.<\/p>\n

Like a lot of WWII vets, Al apparently didn’t talk a lot about the war (or so his various kids told me). \u00a0In 1990, out of ideas for Christmas presents, I built a small scale model of\u00a0Collett<\/em>, and mounted it on a plaque with a couple of wartime photos of the ship.<\/p>\n

After that, he started talking a little more about the war; he dragged out his old blues, and some of his photos, and some of the stories.\u00a0 He passed away about ten years back.\u00a0 Unlike a lot of ex-in-laws, Al and I always got along famously.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Apropos not much. \u00a0I just noticed the anniversary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My ex father-in-law, Al, had been married about a week when Pearl Harbor was attacked.\u00a0 The next morning, he and his umpteen brothers (I lost count and never really found it again) volunteered for one of the armed forces or another (except for one older brother who had already joined the Navy in the thirties). […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[112],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ww2-fact-and-myth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28919"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28921,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28919\/revisions\/28921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}